Area History

The settlement of Kantishna was founded in 1905 as a mining camp near the juncture of Eureka and Moose Creeks. Gold in the region brought a flurry of prospectors in the early days, but as the gold began to run out so did interest in mining the Kantishna Hills.

Kantishna's Mining Past - by Bill Sherwonit

Prospectors Joe Quigley and Jack Horn sparked the rush of stampeders into interior Alaska's Kantishna Hills when they discovered "paying quantities" of gold at Glacier Creek in 1905. After staking the creek, Quigley and Horn returned to Fairbanks where news of their strike created quite a commotion. Thousands of gold seekers streamed into the Kantishna Hills during the fall and winter of 1905. "Practically every creek that heads into the Kantishna Hills was staked from source to mouth and intervening ridges were not ignored."

Several mining camps were established, complete with rowdy saloons and gambling halls. Winter camps include places named Glacier City, Diamond, Roosevelt, and Square Deal, while the primary summer camp was Eureka, later to be renamed Kantishna. During the first summer, Eureka was home to a few hundred people.

Miners lucky enough to stake land along Glacier and Eureka Creeks found good paying deposits, but little gold was found elsewhere. As in most stampedes, the large majority of treasure-seekers ended up empty-handed. By the spring of 1906, only about 50 miners remained.

Known production of metals from Kantishna Hills from 1905 through 1985—when all mining was stopped by the federal government—amounted to nearly 100,000 ounces of gold, 309,000 ounces of silver, five million pounds of antimony and about 1.5 million pounds of combined lead and zinc. Total value of the metals has been estimated at nearly $24 million and some geologists suspect that the Kantishna Hills still contain gold, silver, and antimony deposits worth up to $1.2 billion.

Kantishna Hills Pioneers is a Documentary DVD about the Gold Rush Era that occurred in interior Alaska in the early 1900s. The location was both in and near the present day Denali National Park and Preserve.

Joe and Fannie Quigley were the best known Pioneers in the area. Joe was an excellent photographer and this Production was composed with photos he and other residents of the area took. These photos and historic film footage have been edited with computer animation technology to give an account of the way of life of the Quigleys and other Pioneers in the area.

Click on photos on this page to see video segments from this DVD.
Videos many take a few minutes to load.

Music in the production is from the CD Grey Eagle, Old Time Fiddle Music by
Bill Stevens, a well known Athabascan Indian Fiddler. The Production was produced, written and edited by Ben Boyd, Special Projects Director, with narration by Tracy Snow, an Alaska Native. It was produced as a project of Doyon Tourism and Doyon Foundation. Video may be purchased by contacting: bboyd@doyon.com.

If you click on the images above and a window opens, but there's no video, you may need to download the free QuickTime player. Click here for this easy, free download.